Plastics pioneer Glenn Beall died on July 24, according to an announcement from the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), of which he had been member since 1960.
SPE called Beall “an engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, educator, editor and historian [who] spent over six decades elevating the practice and understanding of plastic product design and manufacturing.”
He began his career at Abbott Laboratories, where he helped design disposable drug delivery systems, earning 12 patents. He then founded Glenn Beall Engineering Inc., and later Glenn Beall Plastics Ltd., where his influential designs earned another 23 patents.
He taught more than 650 technical seminars, reaching nearly 30,000 professionals, making complex concepts in design and processing accessible, practical and widely adopted. His areas of expertise included rotational molding, injection molding, design, additive manufacturing and thermoforming.
Beall held numerous leadership roles in SPE, was instrumental in founding key divisions and played an active role in guiding SPE’s mission. He was named an SPE Fellow in 1985 and a Distinguished Member in 1990, and in 1993, he received SPE’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Plastics Education.
He was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1997.
